A 23-year-old man was convicted of
second-degree murder on Monday in the 2007 slaying of Washington Redskins
star Sean Taylor during what witnesses say was a botched burglary.

The jury deliberated about 16 hours over
four days before returning the verdict in the trial of Eric Rivera Jr,
who admitted in a videotaped confession to police days after Taylor's
death that he fired the fatal shot after kicking in the bedroom door.

At
the trial, he said on the witness stand that his confession was given
only under police pressure and amid purported threats to his family.

Rivera, who was 17 at the time of the slaying, was also convicted of armed burglary. He could be sentenced to life in prison.

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Botched robbery: Eric Rivera Jr, was convicted of second degree murder in November in the slaying of Red Skins star Sean Taylor. Rivera was named as the suspected shooter

Convicted: Rivera sat quietly at the defense table with his lawyers after the verdict was announced, showing no reaction or emotion

He sat quietly at the defense table
with his lawyers after the verdict was announced, showing no reaction or
emotion.

The courtroom was packed with Taylor and Rivera family
members, but there were no outbursts.

Neither prosecutors, Taylor's family nor the family of the football player's girlfriend would comment after the hearing.

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In the confession, Rivera said the group
of five young men, all from the Fort Myers area, had driven to Taylor's
house planning to steal large amounts of cash he kept inside.

Victim: Washington Redskins football player Sean Taylor is shown at training camp in Ashburn, Virginia

They
thought Taylor, 24, would be out of town at a game against Tampa Bay,
but didn't realize until it was too late that he was home with a knee
injury.

Taylor's then-girlfriend, Jackie Garcia Haley, and their
18-month-old daughter, were also home at the time. They were not hurt.

Four other men were also charged in the
case and three will be tried later. Venjah Hunte, 25, pleaded guilty to
second-degree murder and burglary charges in a deal that calls for a
29-year prison sentence.

Testifying in his own defense, Rivera
claimed it was Hunte who brought the 9mm handgun and who shot Taylor.

Rivera insisted that he was not told about the burglary plot until the
group was driving across Alligator Alley toward Miami, and that he
stayed in the car outside Taylor's house the whole time.

The murder weapon was never found. Police say it was stuffed in a sock and thrown into the Everglades.

Taylor, a Pro Bowl safety who had
starred at the University of Miami, was shot in the upper thigh,
damaging his femoral artery and causing massive blood loss.

Admission: Suspect Eric Rivera pictured in court today. Since Rivera was 17 at the time of the killing, the maximum sentence for his crime is life in prison and not the death penalty

Witnesses
say Taylor was shot when he confronted the group with a machete outside
his bedroom. A medical examiner said he was essentially dead on arrival
at a hospital on November 26, 2007, although doctors did manage to restart
his heart for a while.

Aside from Rivera's confession, police
found shoe prints outside Taylor's home that matched sneakers some in
the group were wearing that night.

Witnesses testified Rivera was seen
driving a rented black Toyota Highlander believed used in the crime, and
another witness said the group of five had burglary tools when they
came to her house after Taylor was shot.

An American hero: One prosecutor described Taylor as an American hero who was innocently sleeping with his girlfriend and their baby when he was killed

Taylor, a first-round Redskins draft
pick in 2004, signed an $18 million contract with the team and was
becoming one of the NFL's top defensive players when he was slain.

Several witnesses, including Garcia Haley, testified that he liked to
keep large amounts of cash around his Miami house.

One of the men charged in the slaying,
25-year-old Jason Mitchell, attended a birthday party a few weeks
earlier at the house for Taylor's half-sister, Sasha Johnson — who lived
in Fort Myers and knew Rivera.

She testified that Taylor gave her a
purse containing $10,000 in cash at the party, which was witnessed by
all the guests.

That event put the wheels in motion for
the burglary plot, witnesses said. Rivera himself testified that some in
the group thought they would get between $100,000 and $200,000 to split
up.

Jackie
Garcia, Taylor's girlfriend, who was also inside the bedroom, became
noticeably upset as the detective recounted details of the slaying and
rested her head on her knees in court.

She sat near several members of
Taylor's family, including his father, Florida City Police Chief Pedro
Taylor, in the packed Miami-Dade County courtroom.

Emotional: Sean Taylor's girlfriend, Jackie Garcia Haley, reacts during testimony at the murder trial of Eric Rivera in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in Miami late last year. She and her baby were in the room when Taylor was murdered